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Published: January 13th 2013
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I returned for a weekend trip to Dubai to get out of Qatar for a few days and do something. The only thing I'd recently done in Qatar was find the Belgian Beer Cafe at the Intercontinental Hotel with a coworker - my first beer since Dubai's Rugby Sevens and it was soooo good...
What is kind of nice and exhausting at the same time is that there is just so much to do when I return to Dubai - my weekends get booked pretty fast! Friday, Jamie and Addi came to visit from Abu Dhabi. I hadn't seen Jamie in three months, since I'd left to Qatar. She'd been travelling around the world and we just kept missing each other. So, it was great to see them again. I had already visited the Mall of the Emirates that morning to take care of some errands and watch a movie (Jack Reacher), but we took off for Dubai Mall that afternoon. I'm glad! This month is Dubai's shopping festival and every store has these huge sales. I got some nice cargo pants and a winter hat from Columbia for 100 dirhams (like less than $30). Then I found the book
I had been searching for, which the woman at Borders in MOE said would not be available unless I special ordered it. I knew she was lying (people here are often lazy and make up answers when they don't feel like doing something). Then we went to Uno for dinner and had some deep dish pizza - yum, but I didn't realize it had meat on it and it was sooooo filling! But yum.
That night, Jamie and I met up with our old soccer team at a club for dancing for our coach's birthday. She was prepared to go all out, but when we had returned to my apartment after the mall, we looked up the club to check the dress code. It was "dressed to impress", but we saw their photo gallery and it reminded us of Nickelby's in Ventura (or Billiard's Club in Oxford). I couldn't stop laughing! I really just wanted to wear jeans, but she convinced me to dress up and curl my hair. It was fun, and nice to have a drink. We had a good time; of course the girls don't drink but they like to dance and it was good to
see them all again.
Anyway, Melvin was coming to pick me up at 6:45 for a day of dune bashing. I had my alarm set and was excited. So, I was awoken to my other cell vibrating/ringing - he was calling and I was confused as to why when it was only 6... before I realized I'd set my alarm on my Doha cell which hadn't changed time zones! Ooops!!! so, I threw some clothes and took off. And it was just such a great day! The sky was beautiful, the weather was cool, the sand were gorgeous and perfect, and we encountered friendly camels. There were five cars and 8 people in all, so it was a good mix.
I won't go into too much detail about the driving, the pictures can speak for themselves. But we started at a place called "Big Red" which is a tall sand dune in a field of smaller dunes as far as the eye can see. It was kind of an initiation - if you can get up there, you're golden. Unfortunately, CC got stuck right away. 😊 But he made it to the top and we proceeded onward. A
couple of jeeps, including CC's got stuck at the crest of the dunes throughout the morning, but no major problems and the drive was smooth sailing for the most part.
My only complaint - the trash everywhere! It is really disgusting. People come out to camp and hangout so you just see these piles of trash, which get blown across the desert. People don't take pride in keeping their home or environment clean and that is one of my biggest pet peeves!
Otherwise, enjoy the photos!
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Candice
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Thanks for sharing!
Great pics!